The Social Interweb and its effects on the Ego

So we have all seen it, all these fancy new social networking sites that have been ravaging their way through the internet, almost in the same way that a plague would ravage its way across a countryside. So now some of you might be wondering "What's with this kid's hostility toward social networking??" and I would have to answer by saying that I truly do believe that these sites are wonderful things, there are many things that i do see that are problems with them though.
I will start by saying what i find great about these sites. First, I see great potential for people to express themselves to a certain extent. By this i mean that self expression is a great thing, and these sites do allow for self expression in many ways. The one fault in this aspect is not the fault of the programmers who create these sites, the fault is universal, you can not truly express yourself in terms of just text alone. People's personalities are a product of intrapersonal interaction as well as what your likes and dislikes are. Second, the whole networking aspect of these sites that deam them the name of "social NETWORKING" sites. This is the part of the industry that is the most bastardized (yes, I love this word, I use it to describe many things, ranging from holidays to politics to industries). The way that these sites create a huge network out of all of its users, two of the greatest examples of this is Last.fm and Facebook. First, with Last.fm, the network is created by the listeners, all you have to do is run a program and listen to music, that it. Of course you can do more by editing artist's biographies in their wiki-style editor. And second, facebook, it has been getting a little heat in recent years because of some of the upgrades to their software and the decisions made by these upgrades. The one thing good about it though is that you can decide to not use these updates. But back to the networking aspect, with Facebook, you are grouped based on your college, or your hometown, or your workplace. With this, you can meet other people who could potentially live right next door to you who have some of the same interests as you. And as a very introverted college student, this is a good thing.
So now here is where I go with my issues I find with some social networking sites. First is that it almost feeds the ego, sometimes to the point where its not healthy. People whore themselves out for "friends" or bitch and complain cause someone didnt go read and comment their blog. This is one of the many reasons why I left myspace, I would sometimes find myself checking it many times a day only to find nothing, and then I would get frustrated about it. It's never a good thing.
My second issue with social networking sites is a problem that has been taken into account by the many wonderful programmers who create these sites, and that is the problem with spam and obnoxios advertising. Upon getting a secondlife account (which I plan on deleting as soon as I can figure out) I recieve an email in my gmail inbox notifying me of a friend request or something like that. I take a look at it, and from the first sentance I know it is spam. It is very much the same with myspace, there was a period over the summer where I would get about 5 friend invites a day from people who all have the same information in their profile but they all have different pictures. Its getting pathetic, if you are really that desparate for money and are a programmer, please, put your talent toward the good of the internet, not toward being a pervert who just annoys the fuck out of everyone.
So in summation, I think that the social network phenominon is a great thing, people come together thanks to the hard work of many programmers and good things can come of it. There is however the downsides which are caused mainly by the ignorant masses of people on the internet, but given enough patience, it is something that can be overcome in order to truly enjoy the perks of the social internet.